Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

This AP photo shows us that there is still a tax that we as citiziens have to pay to excercise their right to vote.

Around the country people have been waiting in line to vote for one, two, three, and upwards of six hours waiting to vote.

Tell me that this is not taxing on the people who chose to stand in line just to have their voices heard. The math is rather simple, really. If it takes you one hour to vote and, you take off twenty minutes to get to your polling location and twenty to get back, suddenly it has taken you nearly two hours to vote. Even at the minimum wage, your vote just cost you around $10. This, of course, is assuming that you don’t try to come back a second, third, or fourth time because you were intimidated by the line you saw when you tried to vote early.

This is, of course, assuming that people making minimum wage can afford to miss two hours of work in the first place. For that matter it assumes that every single voter has the ability to stand in line for an hour. Every single physically impaired or elderly person will be able to suck it up and tolerate massive amounts of pain simply to vote. Never mind the average citizen who has children who need watching, never mind the average voter who are working two jobs just to get by and can’t miss any time for fear of losing their job.

Everyone, I mean everyone, is paying a tax to vote when they have to wait in line – after all time is money.

Now I commend those who do decide to wait in line. They are the epitome of democracy – willing to wait just to make sure their voice is heard. Also we must not forget that democracies should not be an easy thing; citizens must invest time and energy in making their decision.

But we must balance this with the fact that democracies require the participation citizens in order to be healthy. We must never forget that is much easier to sit at home and not vote and that anything that could dissuade voters will. For this reason, and this reason alone, the actual act of voting should be quick, easy, and fair. Once someone has made their final decision, they have the right to exercise it without interference – either through malicious voter intimidation or through apathy from polling officials who do not wish to remove barriers to voting.

Long lines will always discourage a portion of the population from participating in something – even if they want to. I would not wait in line to go to a showing of the next Harry Potter movie, even though I do want to see it; the same logic holds true when it comes to voting. We can never know how many people won’t vote because they saw a long line.

Early voting is a good thing, as these lines alleviate some of the pressure come Election Day. But I feel that one should have to wait no more than five minutes to vote, anything more and we are placing a legitimate tax on the right to vote. Both states and the Federal Government need to comply with the 24th Amendment by providing an adequate number of voting machines to ensure that everyone’s has the opportunity to cast their ballot.